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If Bill Walsh’s life story weren’t real, you’d swear it was made up.

He has often said there were five honorable professions for Irish immigrants — policeman, politician, bartender, priest and attorney — and he’s held three of them.

A Mitchell native, Walsh spent 11 years as a Catholic priest in eastern South Dakota before leaving the priesthood in the 1970s.

On Dec. 31, 1979, he married Jo Roebuck-Pearson. The Catholic bishop had asked that the wedding be small, and it was.

“But he didn’t say anything about the reception, so we had about 500 people there,” Walsh said with a big grin, recalling how guests danced until 5 a.m. at the Franklin Hotel.

Two months later, the couple bought into the 1903 landmark hotel. The next year, they opened Durty Nelly’s, an Irish-style basement pub that was the first in the Black Hills to serve Guinness Irish Stout.

“You always had some group in there,” Walsh said. “It was a great ecumenical gathering of Masons, Catholics and atheists, plus leftover hippies from the ’70s.”

Walsh, who along with his wife later became sole owner of the hotel, was the perfect Deadwood host.

He was a fixture at the Franklin, which was the site of numerous holiday parties, served as unofficial headquarters for Deadwood’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and hosted an annual jazz festival for a time.

“We have great, great celebrations in Deadwood,” he said. “That’s one thing that’s kept us young.”

In the late 1980s, with Deadwood in decline, Walsh joined with six other community leaders to form the Deadwood — You Bet Committee and spearhead the drive to legalize gambling and “make Deadwood fun again.” Walsh, with his trademark white cowboy hat and piercing blue eyes, became a spokesman for the committee and a tireless cheerleader for Deadwood.

After 25 years in the hotel business, Walsh was ready to move on. In 2005, he and his wife sold the Franklin to the Silverado Gaming Establishment, which completely remodeled the hotel and closed Durty Nelly’s.

Walsh still lives in Deadwood but now spends his time running Dakota Travel, an agency he started in 1983. He leads group tours around the world and specializes in Ireland (home of the original Durty Nelly’s pub).